A Day at the Beach Towels

When I was a kid, summer vacation meant a trip to the Jersey shore. To this day, I can’t smell sunscreen, salt water, or even funnel cake without being temporarily transported to the Ocean City boardwalk. I feel the same way when I look at Jenny Sennott’s A Day at the Beach Towels from HandwovenMay/June 2018. The colors are perfectly beachy and would look very much at home in any of the beach houses we stayed in while in Ocean City. I hope they transport you someplace equally wonderful.

Happy weaving!
Christina

Jenny Sennott’s A Day at the Beach Towels.

Designer Jenny Sennott’s Statement

Even though I am happy being a landlocked Midwestern girl, I love visiting my mother in south Florida. No visit is complete without a trip to the ocean, where the colors and textures of the landscape, sky, and plants are so different from those in Missouri. I always return home with the Florida beach palette shimmering in my memory. This pair of kitchen towels is inspired by those “beachy” colors: the sand, sky, waves, jellyfish, seashells, and seaweed that I relish on my beach walks all spring to mind when I look at these towels.

For warp, I used Halcyon Yarn’s lovely Block Island Blend Fine yarn. Its luster, crisp hand, and subdued heathery colors make it the ideal yarn for my beach-inspired towels. I used double strands of the contrast colors for a little extra emphasis. I chose Earth Guild’s 4/2 matte cotton as my weft. Its soft cushiness pairs perfectly with the Block Island Blend for everyday towels that don’t need ironing.

If you are new to using pick-up sticks, I recommend weaving Towel 1 first, which uses only one pick-up stick, and then progressing to Towel 2, which requires two pick-up sticks. A bonus of both towel patterns is that the back sides are different from the front sides but are also pleasing. After some deliberation, I decided to hem my towels faceup, as I wove them. You, of course, are free to hem yours as you wish. Weaver’s choice.